


Green Monster

by LizzyPaul



Category: Drake & Josh, High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Crossover, Jealousy, M/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-09
Updated: 2013-05-09
Packaged: 2017-12-10 21:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/790294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizzyPaul/pseuds/LizzyPaul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh comes home from college.  Very slight crossover with High School Musical.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Monster

When Josh came home from school, Drake didn’t recognize him. It wasn’t until the strange, scruffy, Josh-like creature opened his arms and said, “Hug me, brother!” that Drake knew it was him. 

Drake gave him a hard hug. Josh’s beard--his _beard_ \--scratched Drake’s cheek, and even though it was Josh, it still felt _wrong_. Maybe because Josh was all skinny and hard, not fluffy anymore. His shoulder was bony. Drake reached out and ruffled Josh’s hair, then immediately pulled back. 

“Ew,” he exclaimed. “Don’t they have showers at Tan?”

“ _Brown_ ,” Josh corrected. He frowned. “It’s hair gel, Drake.”

Drake wiped it off on his jeans. “I know hair gel, Josh, and that is not hair gel. That’s, like, hair grease. Ew.”

“It’s nice to see you, too.”

“Yeah--dude, what are you wearing?” He held Josh back at arms length and looked him up and down. Josh was wearing dark jeans and a checked top, which would have been fine, a little formal for a plane ride, maybe, but fine. It was the ugly vest that set the whole outfit off, though. It looked like something his grandma would make for Christmas, and then his mom would force him to wear it when she visited. When he was _nine_.

“Clothes,” Josh answered. He sounded a little mad.

Drake pouted. “You look...different.”

“You look the same,” Josh said, smiling.

“Well, yeah,” Drake said. “College is just like high school, except no one yells at you if you ditch or don’t turn in your homework.”

Josh rolled his eyes. “And how are your grades?”

“Grades?”

“Never mind,” Josh sighed.

“Hey, let’s go up to our room, okay?” Drake was happy that he could call it ‘our room’, again. He missed having an ‘our’. “I want to show you my new guitar.”

Josh smiled. “It’s good to see you. I missed you.”

“Yeah, me too,” Drake admitted. “Especially last week, when I had to write a paper on this book about some chick with a baby who wears a big red...uh....”

"A," Josh supplied.

"Yeah! A! How did you know?" Josh shrugged, and Drake wanted to hug him, Instead, he said, just a little accusingly, "Anyway, I really could have used your help." 

“Well, it’s nice to be needed,” Josh said, and headed for the stairs. Drake followed him up to their room.

*~*~*

Josh wanted to hear his new music, so Drake played him the new songs he'd written. Well, all except for ‘Gone’. He might have been able to convince everyone else that the song was about a girl who broke up with him, but Josh was smart, and he knew that girls did _not_ break up with Drake Parker. Also, he could probably figure out who “ _I started talking to you/forgot you were gone, again/needed to hear your voice/why’d you want to go get a Tan_ ” was really about.

“They're really great,” Josh said, with a real, _proud_ smile.

Drake got the fuzzy-warm feeling in his stomach that he always got when Josh talked about his music. Music and Josh...what was better than that? It was like ice cream and chocolate sauce, peanut butter and jelly, hot girls and short skirts. “Yeah,” he said, “the band is really starting to take off.” He paused, then added, “Don’t tell Mom, but if the record contract goes through, I’m thinking about quitting school and doing the music thing full time.”

Drake had expected Josh to get angry—or worse, disappointed—when he told him about maybe quitting school, but Josh surprised him by smiling and saying, “If anyone could you do it, you could.”

“I could really use a full-time manager,” Drake said.

Josh got his apologetic look. Drake hated that look. That look meant that no matter how much Drake begged or whined, Josh was going to say no. “I can’t quit school,” Josh told him.

“What’s so special about stupid Tan--”

“Brown,” Josh interrupted.

“-- _Brown_ , anyway?”

Josh smiled. “Well, I’m learning a lot. Making friends.”

“Friends?” It’s not that he though Josh couldn’t make friends. He knew Josh had friends that weren’t him. Dorky, annoying friends, but friends. It’s just the thought of Josh all alone across the country, being naïve and sweet and trusting...Drake figured there are a lot of ways a kid like Josh could get hurt, and he didn’t even have Drake there to protect him. 

“Yeah, my roommate is really cool. His name’s Ryan. He’s going to be an actor.”

“Ryan, huh?” 

“Yeah!” Josh’s smile was huge. “Hey, I got a picture! Would you like to see him?”

“Uh.” A picture? Who carried a picture of a friend around? Josh pulled out his wallet and flipped it open, holding it out to Drake. Josh kept a picture of his roommate in his wallet?

“He looks kind of...” Drake stared at the picture. The kid in the photo had a smirk. And a tight, pink shirt. And a _hat_. 

“Kind of...” Josh prompted.

“ _Gay_ ,” Drake said. “Dude. Is he wearing pink?”

Josh snatched the wallet back with a frown. “Shut up, Drake.”

“I’m just saying.”

“He’s a really nice guy. I like him a lot. He’s smart and funny and a really good actor. I help him with his lines, and he reads my stories out loud. I can fix my mistakes when I hear how it sounds. He’s my _friend_.”

Drake kind of wanted to fly to Brown and punch this Ryan kid in the face. “So is he gay?”

“Jeez, I never knew you were such a homophobe!” Josh yelled. He jumped off the couch with his hands on his hips. 

“I’m not a homophobe,” Drake protested. He stood up, too. “I know gay people. I have gay friends.”

“Really!” Josh waved his index finger in Drake’s face. “Name one, Mister!”

“I can name _two_ ,” Drake said. “Eric and Craig. Hah!”

“Craig and Eric aren’t your friends,” Josh said. “And wait, they’re gay?”

“Yes?” Drake said. 

“What’s it matter if he’s gay, then?” Josh asked. “If you’re so _progressive_ and all.”

“I’m not a soup!” 

Josh blinked. “Uh-huh.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Drake said. “I just don’t want him to, uh, _bother_ you or anything.”

“Well, maybe I want him to bother me,” Josh muttered.

“What?”

Josh put his hands on Drake’s shoulders. “Look, I appreciate what you’re saying, but I can take care of myself.”

Drake fought the impulse to reach out and hug him, again. Then he realized they were alone in their room, alone in the whole house, actually, and there was no one to see them. So he leaned over and hugged his step-brother. “I’d feel better if I was there to take care of you,” he said.

“I know,” Josh said. He patted Drake’s back. “I’d feel better if I was out here taking care of you, too.”

Drake pulled away. “You sure you don’t want to be my manager?”

Josh smiled. “Ask me again in four years, okay?”

“Yeah,” Drake said, seriously, even though he was pretty sure Josh was joking. “I will.”

*~*~*

Drake was sure he’d never hate anyone more than he hated Mindy Crenshaw, but that was before Ryan freaking Evans. By the next day, he’d heard Josh talk about Ryan about six thousand times, and every time Josh said Ryan’s name, he got a stupid, happy grin on his face. 

When Drake wandered into the living room, Megan was sitting on the couch, her laptop on the table in front of her. “Hey, Megan,” Drake began, and Megan barely glanced up at him before looking back at her computer screen. Drake continued anyway. “What do you call it when you want to kill someone you’ve never met?”

“Psychotic?” Megan suggested.

“I’m not psychotic,” Drake protested. “I just hate that stupid Ryan, that’s all.”

“Oh,” Megan said. She shut her laptop and folded her hands on top of it. “That’s jealousy.”

“Is not.”

“Is too! You’re just jealous that Josh has a new boyfriend and doesn’t want you anymore.”

Drake gaped at his sister. “I…you…that’s…Josh isn’t my boyfriend!”

“Yeah,” Megan drawled, “ _now_ he isn’t. He’s got Ryan.”

“He does not _got_ Ryan,” Drake said. “They’re just roommates. And, um, friends. Plus, Josh isn’t my boyfriend! He’s my _brother_.”

“Ryan is so Josh’s boyfriend,” Megan said. “Also, _step_ brother.”

“I am not jealous of Ryan,” Drake protested.

“You really are,” Megan responded. 

Drake pouted. “Yeah, well, you smell funny,” he growled, and stomped back up the stairs to his room.

*~*~*

“I’m not jealous,” Drake told Josh.

“Uh. Good?” Josh said. He was sprawled out on his bed, typing on his laptop

“And I’m not gay,” Drake continued. 

Josh closed his notebook. “What are you talking about?”

“I just wanted you to know.”

“That you aren’t jealous.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Or gay.”

“Yeah. So you want to go catch a movie?”

Josh stared at him, and Drake started to get uncomfortable. “Hey,” Drake laughed, nervously, “what’s up?”

“You can’t just say stuff like that, Drake!” he exclaimed. 

“Like what?”

“Ryan’s my _friend_.” Josh climbed off his bed, stated walking towards Drake. 

“Yeah,” Drake said. “And I’m saying, that’s cool.”

“It’s _cool_?” Josh sneered. “I’m so glad that having friends is okay with you now.”

“I’m trying to be nice,” Drake said.

“You’re being a big, self-centered _jerk_ , like always!” Josh yelled. “It’s not about you! Ryan’s my friend and I really like him!”

“Okay!” Drake yelled back. “Great! I don’t care! That’s what I’m saying!”

“Fine!” 

“Fine!”

Drake grabbed Josh and kissed him.

*~*~*

“Are you ever going to come down from there?” Josh asked.

“I don’t think so,” Drake said, from on top of his bed, under the covers. “Unless you’re going to move.”

“Can’t do that, buddy,” Josh said. 

After the...the _kiss_ , Drake had pushed Josh away and tried to get as far away as he could, but Josh was faster, now, and had the door blocked before he could get there. Drake had thought about jumping out the window, but really, his face was too pretty to risk hurting. The loft bed seemed like the best option.

“We should talk about it,” Josh continued.

“Um, no,” Drake said. “That’s the last thing we should do.”

“Can you take the blankets off your face?” Josh asked. “You’re all muffled. I can barely hear you.”

Since Drake knew he couldn’t have a musical career in his bed, he sighed and pushed the covers off. Josh was sitting cross-legged in front of the door, staring up at him. He didn’t look mad, or grossed out. He looked...happy, almost, which was wrong.

“Do you want to punch me?” Drake said. “I’ll give you a free hit.”

“I’m not going to punch you, Drake.”

Drake swung his legs over the side of the bed. “It’s okay. I know what I did was dumb.” He couldn’t look at Josh, but he could hear him getting up and walking closer.

“Why did you do it?” Josh asked.

Drake looked at his hands. “I don’t know.”

“Drake.”

“I don’t know!” he exclaimed. “I just...I wanted to?”

“Yeah?”

Josh was close. Drake looked down, he was standing right below him. “Yeah,” he said.

“Well maybe I wanted to kiss you, too,” Josh said. “Did you ever think about that?”

When he was dreaming, maybe. “You...really?”

“Can you come down, now?” Josh asked. 

Drake thought about it. He had a pretty good idea what was going to happen if he came down. He knew what that look on Josh’s face meant. Josh was going to kiss him, and he was going to kiss Josh. His step-brother. His step- _brother_. If he came down, it was going to start something, and he didn’t know how that something was going to end, but knowing him and Josh, it probably wasn’t going to end pretty. If he came down, there was no going back to how it was before.

Drake hopped off the bed, and Josh smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> For a little visual help, this is [Ryan](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3017644288/nm1727317) [Evans](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1423808768/nm1727317), and this is what [Josh](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1229036032/nm0669681) looks like, now that he's all grown up. (Yes, pretty much the _entire_ fic was based purely on this picture of Josh Peck.)


End file.
